Catherine, Thackeray’s first true novelistic work of fiction, appeared serially in Fraser’s from 1839-1840. Inspired by an 18th-century account of Catherine Hayes, burnt alive for the murder of her husband, Thackeray parodied popular crime novels in which criminals were made to seem heroic. Fraser’s would later publish Thackeray’s 1844 novel The Luck of Barry Lyndon.

Thackeray drew the illustrations for Catherine himself; this copperplate was used to print an illustration of con man Captain Brock appearing at court in the guise of a wealthy, respectable gentleman.